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Ashley Brown
Volunteers stepped up to make sure the regional Great Lakes Bay Pride Festival celebrating community and visibility happens in 2024.
Severe weather in June forced organizers to postpone the Great Lakes Bay Pride Festival until Sat., Aug. 17.
The rescheduled festival is set to take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sat., Aug. 17 at Wenonah Park in Downtown Bay City. Most elements of the event will remain the same, but some vendors and entertainers have changed due to the rescheduled date.
What hasn’t changed? The day still promises to be a celebration of community. More importantly, the festival is a day of representation and visibility.
The Pride Festival, the single biggest public event of
Great Lakes Bay Pride, brings together LGBTQ+ community, allies, friends, and families from across the Great Lakes Bay Region and surrounding areas.
Great Lakes Bay Pride serves Bay, Midland, Isabella, and Saginaw counties.
The festival is bigger than that, though. Great Lakes Bay Pride executive director, Scott Ellis, says the festival brings people in from outside that four-county region.
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Ashley Brown
When weather forced Ellis and his volunteers to postpone the 2024 event they had been planning for eight months, they also immediately rejected the idea of canceling altogether. Instead of taking a break, they kept working to make sure the festival happens this summer.
“This team said we know this is important, we know this is something the community values and that it’s needed and we need to have that visibility and representation. We’re going to put the work in it to reschedule and make it happen. I really want to commend them for that,” Ellis says.
“A lot of people in other situations could have said this is canceled,” says Ellis. “We’re just not doing it. But we said, we recognize how important this is and we’re going to continue working.”
Stop by the park during the festival and you can visit a variety of retail vendors, learn about community resources, enjoy live entertainment, and take advantage of on-site health screenings. The festival also includes food trucks, beverages, and a children’s activity area.
If you miss the festival, you can still participate in upcoming Pride events throughout the year. Ellis encourages people to check out the
organization’s online calendar and then step outside their home communities to visit events in neighboring areas.
“I think one of our regional challenges of pulling counties together is not something that comes easily,” Ellis says. “There simply are not the resources out there to support all of these same things in each different county. We have to think bigger, we have to think about it regionally.”
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Onnie StonePeople gather in front of the Wenonah Park World Friendship Shell at the 2022 Great Lakes Bay Pride Festival, Bay City
Upcoming events include:
- Great Lakes Bay Pride takes over Drydock Beer Garden in Bay City, 113 Center Ave., July 31-Aug. 3.
- Equality Michigan will be at the Great Lakes Bay Pride Center, 909 Washington Ave. Suite 5 in Bay City, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on July 23, Aug. 27, and Sept. 24.
- LGBTQ+ Peer Support Group takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at Hoyt Library in Saginaw.
- The LGBTQ+ Social & Game Night takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at the Great Lakes Bay Pride Center, 909 Washington Ave. Suite 5, Bay City.
- The 2SLGBTQ+ Peer Support Group takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Mount Pleasant Pride Center at 201 S. University Ave. Suite 106.
- Friday Night Dinner takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Fri., Aug. 2 at Hunter’s Ale House at 48855 E. Blue Grass Rd. in Mount Pleasant.
- The Transgender Peer Support Group takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the first Thursday (support) and third Tuesday (social) of each month at the Great Lakes Bay Pride Center, 909 Washington Ave. Suite 5.
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